Keeli Alexandra

Keeli and Her Alternate Selves

In 2020, I made a new character for my Cosmivengeon story dubbed “Akeeli” shortly before I realized a lot of things about myself. As soon as I did about two weeks later, I promptly adopted her as my main sona and she has remained as such ever since. Until now! While she is still a sona, I’ve decided it’d be fun to give her lore and her own corresponding story, both for sake of creative expression as well as giving me more to care about (this was already my favorite OC even before this, so I anticipate I’ll be collecting art of Keeli alts until about year 3258).

She and most of her alts are highly intertwined with my best friend Cactusbuddo and his Cereus characters, and even before we figured all this lore out together, he and Keeli already had a lot of drawing things between them. We both decided it’d be fun to turn them into more of characters, so that’s exactly what we did!

Included in the image gallery is a timeline of all the different Keeli/Cereus alts we’ve made over time! This will likely be updated every time we make more, but that may take a bit of time. 

DISCLAIMER: Despite these characters getting together romantically in several universes, Cactusbuddo and I are STRICTLY PLATONIC in real life. We’re just really good friends who thought this would be fun to mutually brainrot over, so please avoid shipping the real-life versions of us!

MAIN TIMELINE

The main chronological timeline and primary universe of Keeli’s story, as well as the most nuanced “plot” as of now. Though this is my folder (and resultantly has only my characters), her story is deeply interwoven with Cereus to such an extent that it feels like only half of the story can be shown on my page alone. Please check out his profile to gain a full picture of everything that’s going on!

A lore summary of the main timeline alts follow:

• Origin - Alex - A depressed 18 year old boy who hides a lot of his misery and insecurity under hoodies and similar attire. He’s a senior in high school and “best friends” with Yvonne, though neither of them are mentally stable enough to be considered healthy friends. However, they understand each other on a deep and unusual level, as if both have something significant in common, but neither know what it is. By the end of the school year, Alex is starting to suspect what’s going on with himself and his identity, but works hard to suppress it in real life out of fear, internalized loathing, and societal backlash. Even so, he occasionally embraces a few “guilty pleasures” by dressing up in more effeminate outfits, but only in the privacy of his locked bedroom. 
• DDLC - Kiri - Alex’s depression eventually gets so bad that he seeks an escape at any and all costs. After slaving away countless hours figuring out code and art, he manages to shove himself into a video game via tech from his father’s company. In this game (Doki Doki Literature Club! - his irl fixation and escapism outlet at the time), rather than his usual appearance, Alex instead takes the form of Kiri, a wholly female version that retains some of his key traits like eye and hair color. She remains in the game for weeks on end, simply interacting with the characters and having a fantastic time free of the woes of life. For the first time, she feels genuinely happy. This keeps up until someone (who she’d later learn was Yvonne) boots up the mod and plays through it as “intended” as a means to cope with Alex’s sudden real-world disappearance. While working through the mod’s story, Yvonne finally learns what’s been going on - that “Kiri” has been having an extreme gender crisis for months on end, completely masked by dysphoria hoodies, empty sulking, and more. “Alex” was nothing more than a crumbling image put up in self defense, and was never an accurate portrayal of her friend on the inside. By the mod’s conclusion, Yvonne (and the game characters) manage to convince Kiri to return to the real world as she finally accepts who she is.
• Default Design - Keeli - Shortly after the incident with Kiri, “Alex” publicly comes out as transgender, taking on a new name, “Keeli,” that was derivative of the one she used in the game. It wasn’t long after that when Yvonne, too, realized he was also trans, and both of them came to an understanding that this unknown similarity was what caused them to bond so well despite neither of them knowing it. He adopts the name “Cereus,” and life gradually gets better for both of them. Two years later, Keeli and Cereus (20 and 18, respectively) are happier than they’d ever been before. Though they’re still not fully where they want to be, so much progress has been made that neither of them can complain, and their lives have largely turned around for the better. With both of them having societally transitioned, they finally have the chance to worry about their own lives and the future rather than hiding away. It’s at this point they wind up catching feelings for each other and become a couple. 
• Five Years Pass - Keeli and Cereus (25, 23) are still as happy as ever, and they end up having a daughter together named Mia. However, around this point, they’ve begun running into numerous financial issues as a result of a strained economy and several medical transition-related costs. Because of this, they’re tragically forced to offer Mia up for adoption, fearing they wouldn’t be able to support her or give her the life she deserves.
• Present Day (No Visuals Yet) - By this point, Keeli is 43, Cereus is 41, and Mia is 18. Keeli and Cereus are more stable than ever, and although they still feel some guilt over the past, they’ve made peace with it and have continued enjoying life to the fullest. Mia, meanwhile, wasn’t given to as good a society as she deserved, and her childhood was largely filled with neglect and bullying. However, shortly after turning eighteen, she runs away on a train in hopes of finding a better life of her own. It’s here that she’s magically whisked away to a completely different world on Aaron’s time-warping train, and her story continues independently from there. 

A lore summary of the alternate universe alts follow:

• Solar Phoenix - Carina - Part of a Celestial AU designed to reflect a few personal motifs. Carina is a lonely star who spends her days dancing through space in search of meaning and entertainment. Any time the star “dies,” she’s quickly reborn in a functional immortality, and because of this, it’s often hard for her to get attached or care about things beyond a surface level. Her counterpart is Sirius, who’s unique in being a fellow star that also understands how lonely and vast space can be. 
• Vampire - Akane - Part of a monster AU designed originally for Art Fight 2023. Akane (age 120) is a goofy, campy vampire that enjoys playing up the human tropes of her species more than actually performing them. While she does occasionally need to drink blood, it’s such a rare thing that she’s hardly a menace in that way; however, she makes up for it by being ridiculous in just about every other regard. Her counterpart is Cerberus, who she takes very good care of, gives many pats to, and calls a “good boy” regularly. 
• Seraph Throwback - Akemi - Part of my custom world and story, Cosmivengeon. Akemi (age 20) is a somewhat downcast member of the Archpriest’s Seraphs, the main antagonistic group, though she does a good job of putting up a cheery front for the others. She initially got roped into the cult after being betrayed by a close friend and felt she had nowhere else to turn to. Though she’s only an underling in their ranks, she’s still fairly content with her new life and enjoys the new daily routines being a Seraph bring, though she hopes one day that she can make more friends to fill the hole left behind. Interestingly enough, Akemi has no counterpart. This is because Infinity (the one responsible for pushing Cereus and his many forms through universes) wasn’t able to overcome the powers of Eternity, the reigning god in Cosmivengeon’s universe. As a result, Eternity denied Artem (Cereus’ Cosmivengeon reincarnation) a companion in typical format, instead taking strides to keep Akemi and Artem apart. This wound up leaving Sana to become Artem’s counterpart instead, and is part of why Akemi’s life has always felt so lonely. 
• Among Us - Kara / “Amethyst” - The first independent fandom-centric AU, this alt is part of an Among Us universe and is the only other character besides the main ones to have a nuanced timeline. Kara (age 20), more commonly just known by her crew as “Amethyst” due to the crystals on her helmet, is an incredibly anxious, but still optimistic engineer on her spacecraft. A single sound in a vent will send her panicking, but she’s more than experienced enough to crawl inside and fix them if she has to. Despite being a bit of a people-pleaser, her life on the crew is fairly standard, all things considered; that is, until they take off from a pitstop on Polus after picking up a few new crew members. One of them is Hylo, or as most people know him, Frogger. Kara is immediately skeptical of Hylo's motives and presence from day one due to the ways he acts, but everyone else accuses her of making things up to freak out over in typical Kara fashion. It isn’t long, however, before she uncovers the truth that Hylo is an impostor after the two literally bump heads in a vent one day while he’s not disguised. Kara immediately starts screaming and scrambling, but Hylo desperately explains that he’s a bit of a “dud” as far as impostors go: overly emotional, constantly guilty, hesitant to harm anyone or anything. This, coupled with the fact that nothing bad had happened until then and the fact that she was still alive, causes Kara enough to calm down and hear him out. Despite every rational part in her brain screaming to immediately report him, the genuine sorrow in his voice is enough to convince her otherwise. After a bit more talking, the two part ways, both thoroughly disturbed by the new revelations but sworn to keep everything secret for both of their sakes. From there, Kara’s life turns from “anxious engineer,” to “anxious engineer who has to hide the fact that one of her new accomplices is an impostor,” and suffice to say, this does nothing to ease her conscience. The only method she has to cope, ironically enough, is Hylo himself, who she finds herself talking to more and more regularly due to him being the only one she can talk about many of these things with. It’s during these conversations that she begins to learn Hylo is genuine with his words and motivations, despite being an impostor. From there, the two start becoming genuine friends, getting along with each other shockingly well. Crew activity resumes as normal, and although Kara is as anxious as ever covering for her impostor friend, the payoff gets a little bit higher each passing day. 
• Five Years Pass (Kara) - After five years of working together and getting closer, Kara and Hylo (25, 23) wind up having a child together named Finn, who most of the crew instead lovingly dub either “Grass” or “Lilypad.” Finn grows up with his parents for the next five years until present day, where Kara and Hylo are still working together on the ship. No further havoc had occurred since the beginning, and they took ample care to never once betray each other’s trust. Because of this, the three remain a happy family well into the present day. 
• Project Sekai - Michiko - As of the time writing this, the most recent fandom-centric AU, being an alt from a Project Sekai universe. Michiko (age 17) is a put-together third-year in high school who prides herself on being a good role model and competent student. Her hobbies include singing and playing piano, which comes into play when she, alongside Amei and another close friend, decide to form a band together out of mutual interest to reignite the others’ long-gone love of music and performing. Their band is named Infinite Diamond, symbolic of them all being on multiple spectrums - because of this, their long-term goal eventually shifts to serving as good representation once their love of music is back. On the more personal front, Michiko’s music production is occasionally spiced up with bouts of drama between her own internal stress and Amei’s abysmal home life. Luckily, she has her mother to fall back on, as the two have a fantastic relationship with each other spurred by the tragic loss of Michiko’s father several years prior. Despite the odds being stacked against her, Michio’s a fairly stable and healthy individual who enjoys being the good big sister figure for her friends that she never had in her own life.